1:2:4 is a spatial exploration of materiality using concrete as a primary element and it's interaction with light. As architects, we wanted to challenge the traditional ways of understanding form and material by scaling down architecture from a built space to objects of utility without foregoing the basic essence of construction. Concrete has the ability to be primitive and futuristic,massive yet intimate; combining the properties of an industrial material like steel with those of something natural like mud. The result is a quasi-construction whose formal purity is offset by roughness in its substance, and where the dialogue with secondary textures creates new perspectives.
The aesthetic and atmospheric qualities of concrete are not just about shape making; It is about the feel of the material, the light and shadow it creates, its particular force - or its lightness and ephemerality. Furthermore, the process of aging of the material:the chipped edges, darkened copper or dripping wax are included as part of the design to celebrate the decay as a sensuous quality to the material's austere legacy. The resulting products strive to evoke a sense of space that hovers between scales - each of these objects can be simultaneously viewed as massive yet miniscule, diminutive yet colossal.
